In the beginning of 1999, the Naruto game company that owns ALPHA-1 decided that for their MMA child to prosper, they need a radically new idea and direction. They hired a mysterious management team that quickly came out with a plan that was seen as a step towards making MMA more competitive, more respectable and able to produce better storylines for the fans to get excited about: The Ranking and Tier system.

Ranking & Tier System
The new ALPHA-1 management hired a respectable panel of experts (including some of the most prolific Japanese (and some foreign) judges, coaches, MMA journalists and former fighters, called the ALPHA-1 Ranking Committee. Their job is to prepare rankings for each weight class that ALPHA-1 has, putting all the fighters that compete in that weight class in order from best to worst (at the moment; the rankings are expected to shift depending on the momentum and streak, but those things are not the ultimate criterion). This ranking is then used to divide each weight class into tiers:

Tier I
It consists of top 5 fighters in the weight class. They are the only ones capable of challenging for the title belt. A Tier I fighter can be challenged by any other Tier I fighter, by the first ranked fighter in Tier II or, in case of the lowest ranked person in Tier I, by the entire Tier II.

Tier II
It consists of the 5 fighters directly below Tier I. A Tier II fighter can fight any other Tier II fighter, the lowest-ranked fighter in Tier I or the highest-ranked fighter in Tier III. The best fighter in Tier II has the option to challenge anybody in Tier I (but cannot have a title shot), while the worst fighter in Tier II might fight anybody from Tier III.

Tier III
It consists of the 5 fighters directly below Tier II. A Tier III fighter can fight any other Tier III fighter, the lowest-ranked fighter in Tier II or one of the top 5 fighters in Tier IV. The best fighter in Tier III has the option to challenge anybody in Tier II, while the worst fighter in Tier III might fight anybody from Tier IV.

Tier IV
It consists of all the fighters below the top 15. They can all fight each other and the worst fighter of Tier III, and top 5 people in Tier IV can challenge anybody in Tier III.
So far, most of the divisions don’t have enough fighters to warrant a Tier IV, but ALPHA-1 is set to grow in due time.

Matchmaking and ranking updates
The matchmaking for an event (especially for a pay-per-view one) will usually be conducted with 8 weeks in advance, so as to give the fighters ample time to prepare. The rankings will be updated after each event, televised or pay-per-view. This means that matches shall be made according to the rankings as they were when the booking was taking place, which might change considerably before the fight actually happens.

New fighters
ALPHA-1 aims to be a home for all the best fighters from around the world. However, due to it being a unique challenge harder than anything else in the world, even the fighters that come in and are judged by the Committee as being Tier I or Tier II have to prove their worth in one of two ways:

Newcomers’ Gauntlet – the newcomer has to fight 3 fights, first with a Tier IV fighter, then with a Tier III fighter and finally with a Tier II fighter before his ranking is considered “proven” and he can start taking matches in a way that his Tier would normally allow.

Tournament – in case of a large influx of fighters and/or a need to shakeup a stale division, a tournament might be organized. Fighting at least 2 fights in a tournament is considered enough to end the newcomer status.

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Hello, dear readers! I know that this forum was dead for so very long, but with the latest discounts by GreyDog we could have a new influx of WMMA3 players, and as I am still playing this game and not the sequel I thought I can start an irregular diary and see if anybody is going to follow along.

The basic idea, as described above, was already tested (albeit in a less restrictive version) in my private game, so I know it can work. Being more interested in MMA sims than actual MMA events, I am not 100% sure how realistic it is, but what the heck.

I'll try to update this when I have time, so there won't be a regular schedule. If anybody's going to follow this, I might even do predictions or other such stuff. I plan on not using pictures and providing short writeups and commentary instead of just dumping the text from the game, as I have found it difficult to read the dumped text in other diaries - but if I happen to get any readers and if they prefer a different style, this is subject to change.